We recently finished up the story in Season of the Wish, and hidden in the Starcrossed mission was a secret portal that led us to a Vex structure that looks strikingly similar to the Ishtar Collective logo. We know the Vex are going to be the subject matter for the first episode after The Final Shape, so today I’m going to take a look at what this Istar Collective clue might mean for future stories in Destiny 2.

The Star-crossed mission was the way we discovered the Wish-keeper Exotic Bow this season, and as the weeks unfolded we could power up the bow with exotic catalysts. This wasn’t the only thing Starcrossed revealed to us. Each week a new platform would appear, and this would eventually lead us to a portal. Last week we got the final step to the portal and we could go through, and inside we found a series of Vex structures plus an Istar Collective sympbol, built in the same material as the Vex structures.

We don’t have any explanation to go along with this discovery, but much of Lightfall’s side stories have been building up to this moment. We’re about to move into a new era of Destiny 2 storytelling, with the removal of 4 seasons and the introduction of 3 episodes to take their place. The first episode is called Echoes, and we know it’s focused on the Vex, so this is a clue related to what we can expect. This all links back to The Veil Containment weekly storytelling from earlier seasons in Lightfall, which told the story of Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi.

First we should have a look at the Ishtar Collective. They were a group of scientists studying the Vex, however, things took a dark turn when the Vex starting simulating them, hundreds of copies of them. The Ishtar Collective then became paranoid, thinking they themselves could be simulations. Not knowing how to resolve this, the Ishtar Collective went to Rasputin who helped extract all simulated copies from the Vex.

Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi were part of the Ishtar Collective. They would go on to Neptune and found Neomuna, and with that they also discovered The Veil. This story was told as part of the Veil Containment weekly story, which you can find on Neomuna, once you complete Parting the Veil quest after the main Lightfall campaign.

During that story we learnt the following:

• The extracted copies of the Ishtar Collective team were sent into the Vex Network to explore, and help find secrets to fight against the Vex and help humanity survive
• The copies met Praedyth, a member of the fireteam that was thought to be lost in the Vault of Glass. Others found their way into the Black Garden.
• The Vex were trying to simulate The Veil with the Black Heart, found in the Black Garden.
• The copies that found their way to the Black Garden tried to overpower the Sol Divisive, a contingent of the Vex loyal to The Witness.
• On Neomuna Maya Sundaresh slowly went mad, conducting experiments created with Vex Technology and The Veil. Maya would go onto create an Exo called Lakshmi-2, that included Maya’s memories.
• Maya Sundaresh was later found dead in the chair connected to The Veil, and it’s not clear what happened. She was experimenting extracting her consciousness and trying to put it into an Exo, did she get overloaded, or did she succeed?

Bungie have mentioned doing more with the Vex post-Final Shape, and the end of Season of the Wish could be the clues we’ve been waiting for.

“I think once Final Shape concludes, the Vex might be in a position to do some more stuff.” Nikko Stevens, Senior Narrative Designer

“We’re trying to bring the Vex in a little bit more of a personalized way right now and in a way that connects with the Witness’ story via the Sol Divisive. These were Vex that went all the way back to Destiny 1 with the Black Heart. They’ve kind of been expanded through piecemeal drops here and there up until Spire of the Watcher which was a really big insight into the Sol Divisive and how closely aligned they actually are with the Witness.”

Going back to the Ishtar Collective symbol inside the portal, and what does this mean for the story in Destiny 2? This may mean we could meet the copies of the Ishtar Collective collective in the Echoes Episode. Plus we could also meet Praedyth, which Praedyth’s Revenge is named after (a Sniper you can obtain from the Vault of Glass). There’s an interesting bit of falvour text on that weapon that says “Praedyth’s fall isn’t over… because it hasn’t happened yet… and it will happen again.”

Looking at what Bungie have said about the Vex, “to bring the Vex in a little bit more of a personalized way”, and putting together the puzzle pieces from Veil Containment, I imagine Maya Sundaresh is going to become an important character in the Echoes Episode. The Vex are potentially very interesting as enemies, but time travelling robots from space lack a personality. One of the reasons why Savathun was so successful as a villian was her personality. Maya was experimenting by downloading her personality into Lakshmi-2, the exo who would go onto be a founding member of Future War Cult.

The audio logs in Veil Containment provide a link between Maya Sundaresh and Laksmi-2. Maya created something called ‘The Device’. The Future War Cult, too, had a Device that allowed for visions of the future, it was a literal device you’d put on your head and plus yourself into, however the visions were horrific and showed a dark future (hence the name Future War Cult). Maya could come back and serve as the face of the Vex threat, plus Lakshmi-2’s voice actor is Shohreh Aghdashloo, and she does amazing work.

None of this is confirmed yet, and its unlikely we’re going to get any concrete details until June, when Episode Echoes drops alongside The Final Shape. It’s going to be interesting to see the change in Bungie’s story telling, as we move from Seasons to Episodes. Bungie describe them as more self contained stories, so it’s liklely we’ll have some mechanic in-game to get up to speed. If you want to understand the story so far, then I recommend The Veil Containment missions, which you can access on Neomuna, and listen to those audio logs.

Let me know in the comments what you think.